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William Smith, a Sunday School teacher and an officer of the 1st Lanark Rifle Volunteers, had very great trouble with the Boys in his Sunday School class. He viewed with consternation the scenes of riot and turmoil in the class and outside. He saw young ex-members of the school slouching through streets and ganging at street corners. He saw valuable human potential being wasted and he decided to do something about it. Smith brought to his thinking three important attributes - his deep Christian conviction,his appreciation of the value of discipline gained as an officer of the 1st Lanark Rifle Volunteers and his knowledge of Boys. He therefore devised a unique system of giving Boys an organisation, as part of the church. He band the Boys together for meaningful activities and spiritual instruction based on religion and discipline. Initially, 59 Boys joined, many out of curiosity but only 35 of them stayed. The Boys' Brigade was born and became the first uniformed youth organisation in the world. This ideal was quickly taken up by many Scottish churches and then by churches throughout Britain and Ireland, and soon in places such as Canada, United States of America, South Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Following the impact of the Boys' Brigade, other uniformed organisations were started.
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The motto is taken from the Bible's Book of Hebrews, chapter 6 verse 19. The biblical spelling of the word stedfast has been retained.
The object of The Boys' Brigade is as follows : "The advancement of Christ's Kingdom among Boy and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian Manliness."The text of this object has remained the same since the beginning, with the addition of the word "obedience" in 1893. However the following aims are a useful translation of the Object into everyday goals for each company:
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The
emblem, like the motto, it stems from the verse "..which hope we have
as an anchor of the soul..." (Hebrews 6:19)
